The power of faith

It was in the afternoon, Thatha had woken up from his sleep. Maithree and Rohan were checking whether he was still asleep. Thatha tightly closed his eyes. But the children understood that he was playing tricks. So they started shouting “Story, story”. Their mothers who were in the kitchen came out and scolded them. You should not trouble Thatha like this. Then Maithree told her Mummy, “Amma, Thatha is only pretending that he is sleeping. Bring a glass of Coffee and he would wake up..” Smilingly Maithree’s mother went inside and appeared with a cup of coffee. Thatha immediately woke up and started drinking the coffee. Maithree shouted, Amma , the moral of this story is , “do not believe Thatha when he is sleeping.” Thatha finished his coffee and started telling a new story to teach Gita.

“Bhola was a very ignorant villager, but he was very good. Somebody told him that there was a great Gurudev Shankara in Benares and he can show him God. Poor Bhola wanted to see God. So he went to Benares and went to the house of Gurudev Shankara. Bhola fell at the feet of Gurudev and requested him, “Sir, Please show me God.” Gurudev Shankar immediately understood that Bhola was an innocent person and he can be made to work like a servant in his house. So he told Bhola, “That is right son, to see God is very difficult. You go and please do all the work in my house. Slowly you will be able to see God.”. Rohan was curious, “Thatha , can we see God if we do work at home? Why is it that my mummy who does all the work, not able to see God?”

Thatha replied, “little Rohan, work is worship. Definitely your Mummy would be able to see God , later. But Gurudev Shankara was a bad man. He wanted Bhola to work in his house without paying him anything. Months and years went on. Bhola did all the work sincerely. Before sleeping he will go to Gurudev and ask, “Sir, will I be able to see God today.” Daily Gurudev will tell him, “Do your job. Later I will tell you a Mantra, if you keep on repeating the mantra, you would see God.”

One day Gurudev was angry and so when Bhola asked him, “Shall I see God today?” he shouted at him , “Get Out you Buffalo.” Bhola who was innocent person asked him, “Sir , is this the Manthra.?”. Gurudev who was in a bad mood laughed at him and nodded his head. Next day Bhola went to the forest and started chanting, “Get out Buffalo”. He went on chanting day and night for a complete year. The Gods were confused. They were satisfied that some God should go before Bhola. But which God? They all went to Lord Vishnu and asked him, “Which God should go before Bhola?” Lord Vishnu replied, “Ofcourse , Yama , because he is the only God with a Buffalo.” Maithree started Jumping, “I have seen Yama in a cinema. He does not look nice and in fact Goldy started to cry on seeing him.”

Thatha continued, “Ofcourse Yama, is fat , black and fierce. But since no other God had a buffalo, he decided to go. But as soon as he went before Bhola, He called him, “Bhola, we are happy with your prayers. What do you want?” Bhola could not believe his eyes. He fell at the feet of Yama and told him, “Sir, All that I wanted was to see you. I do not want anything. I will now run to my teacher Gurudev and ask him, whether he wants anything.” Yama agreed. Bhola ran to the house of Gurudev .He was sleeping at that time. Bhola woke him up and asked him , “Sir , I chanted the Mantra that you told me and now the God has come before me. Sir, do you want anything?”

Gurudev laughed at him and replied, “You fool, you do not know anything. How can God come before you? If you think the person who has come before you is God, ask him, to make my house in to a tank and also ask him to take away half of my beard.” Bhola ran to Yama and asked him the boons as told by his Gurudev. Yama knew that Bhola was innocent and told him. It will be like that. I also bless you to become a very intelligent mean who is liked by all Gods.” As soon as Yama told this, half the beard of Gurudev Vanished and instead of his house he was swimming in a tank.

Bhola became very intelligent and wrote lot of poems,. Now Rohan tell me what is the moral of this story? Rohan told, “You should do everything in this world with complete faith. This is true to praying god also.” Maithree agreed. Thatha added, “This is also one of the methods of attaining God. Meditate but with full faith and forgetting everything.”